The Wasteland Reviewer

Despicable Me 4 (2024) Written Review

The Minions are back for a sixth time…are you ready? The fourth Despicable Me and five films centered around Gru and his life of dastardly doings turned hero and family man. Those yellow little buggers and the funny sounding Steve Carrell villain have captured plenty of magic over the years, but the magic has been diminishing a bit in recent additions. Gru is a full-blown family man now with his new baby boy and his do-gooder lifestyle has taken him far from the world of villainy. But his work with the Anti-Villain League has unfortunately put him at odds with an old school foe, Maxine, who now has some crazy cockroach powers. The whole Gru family must go into hiding at the AVL safe house and sell their new lives as “normal” people. 

With this many films deep into the franchise, does director Chris Renaud and company keep the story fresh? The opening scene is quite promising for sure. The sly Gru spy deal is a lot of fun, and the minimal Minions work is fun and not overbearing. They set up Maxine to be scary and vengeful for Gru to go toe-to-toe with. Unfortunately, most of the film goes downhill from here. Gru and Baby Gru are at the center of the film and get the most work together. Gru’s edge and intrigue is almost all gone at this point because he is no longer despicable at all. He might be petty for sure at times but not in an interesting way. His whole story undercover as a normal man is fun for the limited amount of time the film commits to it. There is a sequence with a honey badger and castle that is a lot of fun for sure but the way it is set up is just random and undercooked. The final confrontation is fun but feels a bit anticlimactic before a silly musical number sends the audience home smiling. 

There is plenty that does work about the film though, doesn’t it? Lucy and the girls are given limited moments to shine (really a singular scene for each of them). There is just too much going on in the film. Maxine is sidelined for most of the film and only really makes an impact in the opening scene and at the very end. He has an evil girlfriend too…who has nothing to do. There is a whole subplot of their new neighbor who wants to be a teenage villain and blackmails Gru. This is barely fleshed out but sets up yet another character for the series with a fun castle sequence as the lone positive. The Minions were getting superpowers, and it is just there for a big tertiary gag that barely comes back to the main story. There is just too much going on and little to attach to. They even sidelined other big characters like Dru, Dr. Nefario, and Grandmother to just add even more characters. The animation for these movies has almost been grotesque from a character design perspective but the rest of the world just feels bland and boring. The same for Despicable Me 4. 

What about the cast? Carrell is always committed, and he does his best here to make things entertaining. Wiig, Cosgrove, and much of the returning cast get so little to do that they are not quite memorable. Joey King is a new addition who makes little impact as the new villainous protegee of Gru. Will Ferrell is committed and fun as Maxine with his silly French accent which works for a film 100% geared towards children. Sofia Vergara has little to do but she is at least sassy along the way. But Pierre Coffin will most certainly be the standout as he does plenty of fun silly things like the Minions this time around. 

Does Despicable Me 2 pick up the momentum where Rise of Gru left off? Not really. That Minions sequel was a surprising entry that did a lot of fun and wild things that kept things fresh for the franchise. This fourth entry in the proper franchise just feels so bloated and tired at this point. The lack of freshness is only canceled out a bit by some silly and fun slapstick comedy (the calling card of this whole franchise). Maybe it is time to hang things up for the family Gru…but we know that they won’t. At least this will probably be a lot of fun for your kids watching.